Anne Lamott Quotes

If I know somebody is coming 'round, it is incredibly difficult for me to work because I'm waiting for this interruption - even the children's comings and goings are interruptions. Cake-making is a good way of coming out of that space.

I was always incredibly driven and found it impossible to relax. I felt that if I slacked off for a minute to enjoy myself, then so many things would be missed.

The main thing to do is relax and let your talent do the work.

No good work is ever done while the heart is hot and anxious and fretted.

So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one's days. One may be preoccupied with shopping and income tax returns and chance conversations, but the stream of the unconscious continues to flow undisturbed, solving problems, planning ahead: one sits down sterile and dispirited at the desk, and suddenly the words come as though from the air: the situations that seemed blocked in a hopeless impasse move forward: the work has been done while one slept or shopped or talked with friends.

Talking about one's work releases the energy and tension to do and make.

[The artist] is like a pump; he has inside him a great pipe that reaches down into the entrails of things, the deepest layers. He sucks up what was lying there below, dim and unnoticed, and brings it in great jets to the sunlight.

Worrying about tomorrow is the best way to screw up today.

Worry is a funky luxury when a lot has to be done.

It works better for me to be nervous and hungry.

I'm very nervous in the beginning and then I get in there and start doing my work and I feel more comfortable.

The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything.

I don't ever rest. It's a problem and hopefully something I will get a better handle on in the coming years.

You have to be able to cut off from the ballet and relax, or you have anxiety dreams at night, worrying about what you're going to dance the next day, going over every little detail.

The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously, and those who have produced immortal works have done so without knowing how or why.

I don't like the feeling, but I've got to say that a little fear makes me a more focused, more responsible programmer.

Just relax and breathe through your ass.

Sometimes the best ideas I have are in my bathtub or in my bed or in my dreams early in the morning before waking up ... I'm like a TV antennae, I catch it all and do it my way.

Work is always an antidote to depression.

Wasting your time in anxious worry over what you may not have is a good way to waste what you need to get it.

Worry destroys the ability to write. Ill health is bad in the ratio that it produces worry which attacks your subconscious and destroys your reserves.

I would tell players to relax and never think about what's at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you've lost your focus.

As actors, we need a moment to take a breath and have a moment of slowness.

Another cause of confusion, and the resulting feelings of nervousness, hurry, and anxiety, is the absurd habit of trying to do many things at one time.

Thinking very often resembles napping, but the intent is different. --Stephanie Plum